Hello friends of ABIN,
2019 has arrived and we want share with you what is currently happening with Another Brick in Nepal.
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Annual fundraiser
Our second annual fundraiser was held in November at Glo Restaurant + Lounge here in Victoria. Tickets sold out, and I think it is safe to say your ABIN board and team members are ecstatic with the success of the event. Glo owner Paul Simpson and his outstanding team made it a memorable evening. The food was fantastic, and best of all our friends and supporters enabled us to raise over $21,000. Wow! Thank you to all who made this event a resounding success. We have already confirmed with Paul that our third fundraiser will be at Glo in November 2019.
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Nepal trip
As you may know, a group of ABIN Team members travelled to Nepal in October 2018. The trip was a resounding success. On this trip the ABIN team was Pat, Josh, Dal, Noel, Kyle, Liz, Kala, Sumitra, Conrad, and me. For many this was their first trip to Nepal. After a few days of enjoying the extensive culture of Kathmandu and adjusting to the 12 hour time change, we travelled to Aapchaur. There we hosted a celebration at our first completed school, Bandevi Primary School, which opened to students in January 2018. A highlight of this was giving all of the students a traditional “money box”, as our visit coincided with the Hindu holiday of Dashain. We had these boxes made and inside the children found toothpaste, a toothbrush, 100 rupees ($1.25), some Canada stickers, pencils and a few candies. We also served a small box lunch to the kids as well as many members of the community.
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A few days later we all boarded a small twin-engined plane and flew from Kathmandu to Tumlingtar Airport in the province of Sankhuwasava, the most eastern region of the country. We spent three nights in the area where our current project, Sharada Secondary School, is well underway. In Nepal, Secondary School means that the school has students from grades K-10. Primary school is K-6. Just like at Bandevi, our team was welcomed with flower lays, cultural displays, and warm speeches full of gratitude for what we are doing. Sharada School is an eight-classroom school and when we were there the first-floor walls were nearing completion. In mid-December the second-floor concrete slab was poured and now work has commenced on the second-floor walls. This project is scheduled to be ready for students around July 2019.
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We spent two of our three nights in this region in the town of Khandbari, where our Nepali NGO partner, SODEC, is located. Our friends from SODEC welcomed us at their offices where we learned a great deal about the many humanitarian activities that they are involved in. Also in Khandbari we visited Mahendra Secondary School. I was asked to visit the school during my November 2017 trip but could not fit it into my schedule. The highlight of this visit was to learn about and meet some Deaf students who both live and study at Mahendra. After welcoming speeches and touring the school grounds we walked about 10 mins to the hostel where the Deaf students live. ABIN learned about the school and its programs for some 800 students. The school made a request to us for funding of 520,000 Rupees (about $6,200 Canadian). We briefly discussed the request and voted on the spot to provide this funding. It is hard to describe the emotion that our team felt knowing that such a comparatively small amount of money could do so much to help a school like Mahendra. Among other things, the funding will provide a projector and TV, new fencing, sports / recreation and teaching materials, skill development training and hostel maintenance. Watch our website over the coming months as we work towards playing a larger role in supporting the students of Mahendra and especially the Deaf program.
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Second Annual ABIN Trail Run
The date is set, March 10, 2019, the setting is East Sooke Park. Our race committee has been working hard for many months and this event promises to be another fantastic day. Rajen and his team from The Mint Restaurant will be providing Nepali food at the finish line. Last year the food was perhaps talked about even more than the beauty of the challenging 5 and 10km courses. You can register and perhaps challenge friends to join you on the course while raising funds for our ongoing school projects in Nepal. All the info that you need to register is on RaceRoster. If you are not a runner but would like to come out and support the racers perhaps a volunteer task might be the answer. As always, we will have our ABIN logo’d apparel and a small selection of Nepali scarves and hats for sale as well. Level Ground Coffee has joined us and will be serving their coffee. We will also have hot chocolate for the kids (and big people too!)
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New partnership
I can’t tell you just how excited we are to share this next announcement with you. In early January Julie Bedford and Barry Rafferty of Toronto contacted ABIN via our website. This intrepid couple have joined an expedition for the spring climbing season and plan to summit Everest. This climb to the highest point in the world (8848 m) will be an amazing accomplishment in and of itself, but it gets better. When they complete their Everest climb Julie and Barry will also have conquered their 7 Summits dream – they will have climbed the highest mountains in each of the seven continents! As of January 2019, about 5294 people have summited Mt Everest. Sounds like a lot of people but this works out to an average of just 80 new climbers of Everest per year since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Now how many people belong to the ultra-elite 7 Summits Club? This number stands at just 400 people…..ever!
Julie and Barry explained to me via phone call that they wanted to mark their upcoming Everest Climb and the completion of the 7 Summits by making a social impact through education in Nepal. Their search for an established Canadian charity to partner with led them to Another Brick in Nepal. ABIN are thrilled to announce, along with Julie and Barry, that both parties and their donors are going to commence construction of a school to mark this momentous occasion. We want to thank Julie and Barry for the trust that they have placed in our organization. Along with our SODEC friends in Nepal we have already come up with a short list of projects and will soon be able to announce our third school construction project in Nepal. We will of course keep you informed via our website and in future newsletters.
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Victoria Film Festival
On Tuesday Feb 5 at The Vic Theatre Victoria Film Festival will be airing “Children of The Snow Land”. This powerful documentary traces the lives of three students from isolated Himalayan regions as they journey home to their respective villages after they were taken by their parents to Kathmandu at very young ages. Their parents hoped that through education their children will be able to achieve a life that is not available to so many children in the impoverished and isolated mountainous regions of the Himalayan mountains of Nepal.
The screening of this film is sponsored by our friends Rajen, Michael and Patrick owners of The Mint Restaurant. Following the screening of “Children Of The Snow Land” The Mint will be serving up a range of their mouth-watering Nepali dishes. We know that once you experience this event you will definitely want to join us on March 10 for the Trail run and more of The Mint’s delicious Nepali food.
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Thank you
As I look back over the past 12 months and look forward into 2019, I am so incredibly grateful for the progress that Another Brick in Nepal has made. The continued dedication and hard work of our board and team members has enabled us to progress towards our mission of building schools and helping Nepali school children. Construction of our second school is scheduled for completion in a few short months. Construction of our third school, made possible by the support of Julie and Barry, should commence at about the time that these two modern day adventurers reach the summit of Everest. These projects along with ongoing involvement with Mahendra School in Khandbari, and our support of Yagyamati Secondary School in Kathmandu brings our projects to 5 schools and counting. We rely on the support of donors like you. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and for sharing it as you see fit.
Best regards from all of us at Another Brick in Nepal,
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